


The Night the Lights went out in Georgia

by randomlittleimp



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Adultery, Alternate Universe, Bar Room Brawl, Car Accidents, Drunk Driving, F/M, Hacking, Identity Swap, Minor Character Death, Murder, Starfleet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-27
Updated: 2017-10-27
Packaged: 2019-01-25 07:30:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,077
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12526168
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/randomlittleimp/pseuds/randomlittleimp
Summary: Based off the song.Not the story you knowI posted this on tumblr awhile back, forgot to put it here





	The Night the Lights went out in Georgia

We had grown up together, my twin brother, his best friend and me. All the same age and all too bright for the small backwoods town we were raised in. We were inseparable from a young age, it was no surprise when romance bloomed between Daniel and me. My brother was put off by the idea at first but soon realized that there was no one he would rather be with his sister than his best friend. It was a beautiful time for our little trio,we were indestructible. Nothing bad could ever happen, we were going to rule the world one day. 

The boys went off to med school, destined for medical greatness. I was always more of a technological genius, so I was MIT bound. We were all a little shell shocked by how much harder it was outside the little bubble of our small town. We struggled, we doubted, but even apart we helped each other through the tough times till we came out on top. Eventually finding our groove and excelling just as we had planned. 

Daniel and I were just as in love as always, nothing seemed to be able to break us, not even the distance. He and my brother were off to their residency years as I began taking the programming world by storm. Just as they were finishing up there years of torturous training our worlds came crumbling down around us in one night.

It was raining and dark as my brother made his way home from a two day shift in the pediatric ward. He was tired and not as quick behind the wheel as you would hope all other drivers would be, but he was still better than the guy coming home from a three day bender that drifted into oncoming traffic. My brother died on some empty highway, a life snubbed out so fast and so carelessly it threw me and Daniel for quite a loop. Nothing would be the same, we were not indestructible and now we knew it.

I went back home, hiding from the world in my room. Daniel tried to get me out, to help me mourn and move forward, but he was my brother and he was gone. I hated the world right then for taking him away from me and pushed Daniel away from me in the process. I broke his heart, destroying the only positive thing he had left.

Meanwhile I delved into the dark side of the internet, mingling with people more than willing to exploit my talents for their own needs, pushing me into things a little more dark and illegal. Teaching me the ins and outs of hacking, which I took to like a fish to water. Eventually I came back to myself, and realized that two years had passed and Daniel had moved on without me. He was married and I was truly alone. 

He had met her while working at a hospital in Atlanta, making a name for himself, working himself half to death as if he was trying to make my brothers dreams come true as well as his own. The trollop had made enough of an impact that he was able to slow down and enjoy life again, and I thought I could appreciate her for that. It didn’t last though, Daniel convinced her to move back to our small town with him, and get married. He would take over the small clinic in town as a true country doctor and they could settle down and start a family. Jocelyn was not the settling type though and while she put on a good facade for Daniel, everyone else in town knew what she was getting up to when he wasn’t home. She made time with many of the men in town, including the police chief and the local sitting judge. So when Daniel was called out of town for a couple of weeks for a convention she barely spent a night at their home.

Of course he came home a day early to surprise her, but the surprises were all his.

When she wasn’t at their house he went into town to look for her. He stopped in at the local bar seeing as it was one of the only places open that late on a Friday night. Had I known where he was I would have tried to stop him. No, she wasn’t there, but enough of her ‘friends’ were, and they were swapping stories. Andy was talking the most, as he was one of her favorite conquests. It was loud enough with their laughter no one heard him come up behind them. Daniel heard enough to know exactly who they were talking about and the fight that followed would go down in history. They threw him out on his ass after he nearly took out half a dozen guys, but he was still fuming.

He went home and grabbed his daddy’s hunting rifle and waited till after closing time and then headed out to Andy’s house. It had rained heavily that week and the ground was soft and muddy. As Daniel made his way through the woods behind the houses he could see that he had not been the first person through there. He was blinded by anger to think much on it at the time though. As he approached the house he could see the lights on in the kitchen and Daniel made his way slowly to the back door, trying to keep his steps as quiet as possible. The door was open and as he entered the smell of gunpowder and blood overwhelmed his senses, shaking his resolve. He turned the corner to the kitchen door and found Andy’s still warm body lying in a slowly expanding pool of blood. The sight of the dead man cleared the red from Daniel’s eyes and he took off running back the way he came. 

That’s when I saw him. I had no idea he was back in town but when he came barreling through the trees beside where I was crouched I knew my plan was finished. He had had an air tight alibi while he was out of town, but now he would be suspect number one. That wasn’t going to work at all. I chased after him and caught up easily as he stumbled through the woods in shock and fear. Once I had him calm enough the two of us went back to my house to get cleaned up and make a new plan.

“Where is my wife? I need to talk to my wife.” Daniel was pacing in my cellar office, looking more shell shocked than anything.

“That harlot? I wouldn’t worry about her. God damn it Daniel! What are you doing back? You were supposed to be at that medical conference till tomorrow night!” I was practically shouting in my frustration.

“Don’t call her that, she is my wife damn it! I came back early to surprise her! Where is she?” He was staring me down now, his arms crossed in front of his chest, one eyebrow raised as he glared at me. It would have been sexy as hell in any other circumstance.

“I’ll call her that because that is what she is! She has been sleeping around on you since you came back home, maybe before. She is not the one you need to worry about right now.” I poked him in the chest with my finger to emphasize my point. I was not going to let him make me feel bad about what I did for him. I had done it all for him.

Daniel stepped back, a shocked look fell upon his features, “What did you do?” It was almost a whisper, but I heard it clearly all the same. The fear and shame in his voice was unmistakable.

“I did what had to be done, for you.” I turned away from him, I couldn’t bear the look in his eyes. “You weren’t meant to be here, the perfect alibi, but now they know you’re here and they know you know. You’ll be brought up on murder charges and convicted before I could even have time to confess. Not that they would believe me if I did.”

I heard him slumped down onto the couch. I turned to see him sitting with his head in his hands, I could hear his silent sobs as the realization of everything finally sunk in. “Did you kill her?”

“Does it matter?”

“Of course it matters!” He looked at me like I was crazy to ask that, and maybe I was.

“I don’t miss when I aim my gun.” It was all of an answer I was willing to give.

He looked at me, finally seeing me for what I was, what I did. He had a range of emotions that shot across his face, fear, anger, disgust, desire, until he finally settled on the truth that there was nothing to be done about my actions except acceptance.

My mind was running through so many possibilities, ideas to get him safely away from here and the problems I caused him until the obvious showed itself to me. “You need to go. You need to get as far from this as you can.” I ran to my computer and began typing furiously.

“But how? Where am I gonna go where they won’t be able to find me?” He was standing again, walking towards my desk, trying to see what I was doing, but he was never any good with computers and I knew everything on the screen would look like gibberish to him.

“You need to get off planet.” I said simply.

“And just how do you suggest I do that?” I could hear the skepticism in his voice, it nearly made me giggle.

“You’ll join Starfleet. They always need good doctors.” It was simple. It would take him to the other side of the country and then hopefully a whole new planet or space station where no one knew his face.

“They’ll check my records. They’ll see that I’m wanted by the cops, I’ll never get on the shuttle.”

“Daniel Tipton would never make it onto the shuttle, true, but my brother would.” I said it with a satisfied grin on my face. It was the most incredible bit of hacking I had ever done, and I could practically feel my brother’s spirit cheering me on.

“Your brother is dead.” Daniel didn’t get it.

“Not anymore, not by any digital record that matters. You can use his name, his degrees, his experience and get into Starfleet, and get the hell away from here.” I pulled a print out from the printer dock and handed him the enlistment forms with my brothers name on them, but Daniel’s physical stats. “They won’t know the difference.”

“I’ll never see you again.” He almost sounded sad, but with as much as I had screwed up his life in one night it was better this way. “I’ll miss you, Emma.”

“I’ll miss you to Daniel, but you should go. You need to be in Iowa in six days to get on a shuttle.”

“Fuck! Iowa, really? How do I get there?” 

“You take my car, I never use it anyways. You can pack a bag of my brothers clothes, you were always about the same size. I’ve got some cash stashed around here somewhere too.” i frantically started looking around for things Daniel might need when his hands were suddenly on my shoulders holding me in place in front of him.

“Why are you doing this for me?” He was looking me in the eyes and I could tell he really didn’t get it.

“Because I love you, you idiot.” I could help but lean up and give him a quick kiss on the lips before running upstairs to where my brothers things were still stored away as if awaiting his return.

As we packed the last of his things into the car I turned and wrapped my arms around Daniel.”I’m gonna miss you.”

“I’ll miss you too, Emma McCoy.” I smiled up at him.

“You should start getting used to your new name before you get to far Leonard.”

“Yes ma’am.” He said with a smile before giving me some half assed salute and climbing in the car and pulling out of the garage and into the darkness.


End file.
